How Multilingual SEO Works
Overview
Once your multilingual website is live, search engines need to know which URL corresponds to which language and that they are different versions of the same page. Kanorio generates these settings automatically and updates them as your content changes, so you don't need to write any tags yourself. This article explains how it works so you know exactly what search engines see.
URL Structure for Each Language
- The primary language is at the root URL:
example.com/about. - Other languages are in their own subdirectories:
example.com/en/about,example.com/ja/about. You can modify the prefix by selecting "Change URL" from the "⋯" menu in the language bar; once changed, the old URL automatically 301 redirects to the new one. - Using the primary language code as a prefix (e.g.,
example.com/en/about) will automatically 301 redirect back to the root URL to prevent duplicate pages. - Pages, posts, and products in each language have their own URL slugs (e.g.,
/aboutand/en/about-us), generated from the translated titles. Once a slug is generated, it is fixed and will not change if the original title is updated, ensuring stable indexing for search engines. Using a slug from another language will automatically 301 redirect to the correct URL.
Search engines treat each subdirectory as part of the same website, so you only need to register once in Google Search Console. Impressions and clicks for all languages will be aggregated within the same property.
Automatically Generated hreflang and Sitemaps
Every page's <head> lists the translated language versions of that page (hreflang) and points to the primary language version with x-default, ensuring search engines serve the right language to the right user. Traditional Chinese is marked as zh-TW, and other languages follow standard codes. There is only one sitemap, and every URL within it includes the corresponding URLs for other language versions, perfectly matching the hreflang on the page. Structured data (Schema.org) on the page also indicates the language.
This is all automated: when you add a page, publish a translation, or correct a text, everything updates within seconds without needing to resubmit your sitemap.
Untranslated Pages
If a language is still in progress, it remains invisible to visitors and search engines, so you won't have a "half-translated" site. Once live, if a specific page hasn't been translated yet (e.g., you disabled auto-translation or a newly added page is still pending translation), the language URL will still load and display the primary language content. However, the canonical tag will point to the primary language URL, and hreflang will not be listed, so search engines won't index it as duplicate content. Once the translation is published, it will revert to a normal language version.
llms.txt and RSS for Each Language
/llms.txt, /llms-full.txt, and /rss.xml for the primary language remain as they are. Other languages have their own copies under their respective prefixes (e.g., /en/llms.txt, /en/rss.xml), containing the version for that language. AI search and subscription tools can read these separately. robots.txt is site-wide and does not distinguish by language.
Why No Automatic Redirects Based on Visitor Location?
Kanorio does not automatically redirect visitors to a specific language based on their location or browser language. Instead, we provide a language menu in the header for visitors to choose. This is the recommended practice for search engines: automatic redirects can prevent search engine crawlers from seeing other language versions, making them impossible to index. For visitors, being forced away from a page they clicked on from search results is also a poor experience. Once a visitor switches languages, subsequent pages will remain in that language.
After Removing or Disabling a Language
When a live language is removed, all URLs under that language prefix will automatically 301 redirect to the corresponding page in the primary language. Search engines will transfer the ranking, preventing a spike in 404 errors. Translated content is kept for 30 days; if you re-add the same language with the same URL prefix during this period, the original URLs will be restored, and the redirects will be automatically removed.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The search title and description are translated along with the rest of the site. If you want to adjust the wording, simply switch to that language in the editor and make corrections at the bottom of the screen. Core keywords and indexing toggles are set in the primary language and shared across all languages.
No. All languages are located under subdirectories of the same domain, sharing domain authority, and you only need to register once in Google Search Console.
Same as new pages: the sitemap is updated immediately and notified via IndexNow. The actual indexing time is determined by the search engine, usually appearing within a few days. You can check the status in Search Engine Indexing and Sitemap.